%0 Journal Article %J Open Source Business Resource %D 2007 %T An Introduction to Rights Expression Languages %A G.R. Gangadharan %A Michael Weiss %X The objective of this article is to: i) extend the discussion of licensing to non-software assets and ii) provide an introduction to rights expression languages (RELs). Licensing is not limited to software. We can associate a license with any kind of asset that holds intellectual value, and can thus be turned into a source of revenue. Here, our interest is on information assets, which include software and software components, but also services, processes, and content. For instance, a song that a user downloads from iTunes is an information asset. So is a web service such as the Google Maps API (application programming interface). %B Open Source Business Resource %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %8 12/2007 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/105 %N December 2007 %9 Articles %1 Novay G.R. Gangadharan is a doctorate student in University of Trento, Trento, Italy. His research interests include Free/Open Source Software Systems, Service Oriented Computing, Internet Software Engineering and Web 2.0, and Business Models of Software and Services. %2 Carleton University Michael Weiss holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and is a member of the Technology Innovation Management program. His research interests include open source ecosystems, service-oriented architectures and Web 2.0, business process modeling, social network analysis, and product architecture and design. Michael has published on the evolution of open source communities and licensing of open services.